roguerouge said:
You need to tell us what we can play with. I'll start with an assumption of core-only, although that's silly for me to assume given an artificer and a minotaur.
First piece of advice: ask your DM if it will be possible for your illusions and charms to allow your party to bypass encounters and alter plotlines on occasion. If he gives any answer other than yes, you are dealing with a bard-negative DM and you should choose another class, like a conjurer wizard, that fits his playstyle. It's absolutely vital that you be allowed to win fights with illusions and charms in order to be useful to your party.
Assuming the rogue has stealth covered, I'll assume that you're going to be the face of the party. To do that, max out the following skills: Use Magic Device (Cha), Bluff (Cha), Diplomacy (Cha), Gather Information (Cha), Perform (Cha), Sense Motive (Wis), Tumble (Dex).
Now, what's your party role? Are you going to be a buffer, a charmer, or an archer? That role is going to influence what you do with feats and spell choices. Given the monk, barbarian, rogue combo, I'm guessing that you can be an effective archer, which would require Point Blank Short and Precise Shot. Enchanter/Illusionist bards should take Spell Focus, because your DCs are going to lag anyway.
Spells to consider:
1st-Level Bard Spells
Charm Person: The Bard's Fireball. There's no reason not to take this spell.
Disguise Self: Only if you're not going to take Alter Self.
Grease: Makes opponents fall down and be flatfooted, for extra roguish fun.
Hideous Laughter: For when the barbarian makes charming impossible.
Undetectable Alignment: For spy missions
Ventriloquism: Surprisingly useful if the DM doesn't nerf illusions.
2nd-Level Bard Spells
Alter Self: A must-have for flexibility.
Blindness/Deafness: A Fort save spell for those pesky wizards.
Cat’s Grace: With a minotaur and a monk and a rogue, you can bribe them with this spell.
Detect Thoughts: Spy campaigns only.
Eagle’s Splendor: If you plan on using a lot of illusions and charms, this works like a Spell Focus feat.
Glitterdust: A Will save spell for those pesky fighters.
Heroism: Does not stack with bardic music. Avoid.
Invisibility: For an enchanter/illusionist, this is a great spell.
Mirror Image: A great defense spell.
Silence: Really annoying and really worth it.
Suggestion: Yum.
Summon Swarm: One of your few area of effect spells.
3rd-Level Bard Spells
Charm Monster: The Bard's Fireball.
Confusion: Area of Effect, but combats slow to a crawl.
Displacement: Attacks miss subject 50%.
Glibness: In other words, if you take this, don't max out your bluff ranks.
Major Image: It's for creative DMs only.
Summon Monster III: Three Summon spells for the price of one.
Items: You want a crystal echoblade from the Magic Item Compendium. Beg, whimper, cry like a baby to your DM until you get it.
Prestige classes: Look at Fochluchan Lyricist and Sublime Chord.
Mostly agree with all of this, so I'll just add my input to it.
Grease: Best cast on weapons or footwear, cause they'll fail their roll eventually!
other 1st level spells to consider:
Silent Image: There are whole threads on how awesome this can be with some creative thinking.
Inspirational Boost: +1 inspire courage, and as a swift action! Non-core (Spell Compendium), but definitely THE spell to beg for if the DM makes exceptions.
Eagle's Splendor: Utility slightly dampened since a +2 cloak of cha is affordable by that level.
Glitterdust: Also blinds (with save), making blindness/deafness less necessary.
other 2nd level spells to consider:
Hold Person: Very limited use, but still great bang for your spell level.
Tongues: If you want to spend skill points on things besides speak language. I'd rather spend skill points, though.
Glibness: It's still worth maxing Bluff ranks, possibly. For starters, won't help on feinting (if you care). Also, if the DM allows the epic use of Bluff (take a -50 penalty to implant a
suggestion), this spell +
message = awesome, once you can make the check.
other 3rd level spells to consider:
Geas/Quest: Since you're starting at level 7, and it's limit is 7 HD. If you take, would want to immediately trade out at the next chance.
Haste/Slow: Depends on what the Artificer can do. Former's a great boost, even though you get it later than a wizard. Latter provides a nice selective "area" spell on a spell list that has few.
Sculpt Sound: Not necessarily a power option, though occasionally very useful. This spell's just fun.
other spells: May still want to pick up a cure at some level, in case the normal healers are incapacitated. Not really necessary, though. (wands are cheap)
Items: totally right about the crystal echoblade. Add "of harmonizing" to it (from the same book), and feats that let you sing and still concentrate on other things or extend the time a song lingers become almost completely pointless to waste a feat on.
Feats: As basically everone has has said of Song of the Heart, there's no reason to not take this feat! The other Eberron feat for bardic music you can get at level 6 (Haunting Melody?) is also quite good. Gives a nice offensive use of bardic music. There's a great deal of non-core feats that rock for the bard, pending allowed books.
